See article in PDF(13.5 MG) for photos:
“Beijing’s Old Villages” photo essay by Virginia Anami in Chinese, China Culture Pictorial(中华文化书报）, 2005.12，pp.86~97.ISSN 1005-409X
Some of the Chinese written with these photos of mine comes from an essay on Chinese Villages that I wrote in English.This was on the occasion of a photography exhibition I had with three other photographers in November, 2003 at the Confucian Temple in Beijing.Many of the photos in this article were included in that exhibition. So please enjoy the photos in the attached pdf and read the English in the article below.
Villages With Special Characteristics
Beijing’s villages all have their own special and different characteristics. Stretching from the plains to the mountains, some originated as coal mining or trading villages. Others quarried stone for a living or sold kindling. Some functioned as post towns, guardians of tombs or defenders of mountain, river and canal crossings. Villages also grew up around important temples or tea stalls along important roads or pilgrim paths. Imperial orders founded villages to serve as builders of forts or to produce pottery and tiles. This great variety in the rural scene around the capital reflects not only the diverse geographical landscape, but also the importance these hamlets had in the history of Beijing.
More than anything these villages are their people. They have kept the continuity of their community. It is they who have preserved their stories and passed them down as oral history, who have built and rebuilt their homes or who have perpetuated crafts and special livelihoods. Their tradition of cooperation in digging wells, repairing roads and guarding trees at their sacred sites was essential for their community.
Villages all depend on their surrounding land. It is the natural environment that gave food and water and supplied wood for shelter and burning. As stone has been the predominant building material many villages have kept their ancient layout, some even 500 years old. In the mountainous districts, villages like Chuandixia and Lingshui in Mentougou have preserved stone homes and walls, suggesting the ambiance of their traditional society. Another place nearby, called the Village of a Pair of Rocks, actually has a house built on top of a giant boulder.
Although only 23 families remained when I walked along the narrow stone passages of the Chuandixia Village in 1996, it had the structure of its village from Ming and Qing times when more than 100 families were mostly involved in the coal trade. It was an eerie experience to peer into these stone homes with their many courtyards as more than half of them have been abandoned. Mr. Han Jushan took me around to see some of the unique features like underground storage as refrigeration for food, deep wells, secret storerooms for money and a stone-grinding wheel in continuous use for over 400 years. Faded revolutionary slogans reminded him of his own participation as a Red Guard in destroying the village shrines. Since then, the exodus to find jobs elsewhere has left a complete stone village frozen in time.
Beijing’s oldest stone dwelling is the place called Guyaju in Yanqing There, on the side of a mountain face are more than 100 small caves, that together formed a kind of an early town, complete with meeting places and shrines. Inside the caves are pillars of stone and stone hearths. Not much is known of these stone dwellers, but from their relics we can see they had social organization, a hierarchy and a defense system against intruders.
In Fangshan district Mobeicun, Stone Engravers Village, also has a long history. This is where the stones for the famed stone sutras of the Yunjusi Temple were quarried and many engraved over 1,000 years. In the village center is a neglected temple, Stone Engravers Memorial Shrine, dedicated to the stonecutters over the ages. In 1997 only one hall was left and that had a hole in the roof. At the side of the temple I wandered in the many sheds where out-of-town workers now polish and dye stone tiles. They told me that their quarry still produces adequate supplies. One former engraver, Mr. Zhang, 80, boasted to me of their special stone, the White Cloud Stone, which is almost translucent and has a natural lustre. And, yes, he thought it was fitting to have a shrine to their profession, to the myriads of unnamed craftsmen, and that it should be repaired. He pointed out the remaining stones bases of the front gate and the shrine to the god of medicine at the back. The once annual village festival on the 19th of the second moon honored their stone engraving tradition.
At another place in the Shijingshan District, I drove around Black Rock Village as if I had lived there all my life. Well, that was how my fellow explorers described it. Actually, it was my sixth time to be there and it was simple as the old part of the village has only three roads: upper, middle and lower streets. It was there that I led my friends along the walkways lined with distinguished scholar trees and stone homes with slate roofs.
While going along the “central” way, I heard some talking, so I poked my way into a stone-enclosed compound. Inside, an elderly gentleman who looked 65, but was in fact almost 80, proudly took us around when he learned we were interested in the history of his village. Our eager guide ushered us right inside the oldest home down on Lower Road. Going through a single entrance we passed into three courtyards with a separate garden. It is now occupied by several families. An old lady who was born in the house graciously let us peer into her living quarters. Then we went into the courtyard of the Qian family. Their house is beautifully preserved. With warm hospitality they allowed us to tramp right into their living room to check out the fine woodwork.
The east end of Lower Road keeps an old convent with a stone wall, two stone side halls and a freshly green willow tree growing in the temple courtyard. Seeing me taking pictures of the tree, a middle-aged man living there claimed he planted it while in grade school and readily posed with his tree. After Liberation, he said, the nunnery became a lock factory, but is now abandoned.
It wasn’t until the end of exploring the village that we heard that there really is a black rock after which the village is named. A young boy jumped on his bike to guide us to a massive stone, three times the height of the red van parked in front of it. It appears that the villagers don’t pay attention to it any more. Without much regard to this outstanding boulder, broken chairs and desks have been allowed to accumulate at its base. Such a singular giant outcropping, though, must certainly have been impressive to the locals in the past. Why else would they name their village for it? My fellow explorers were amazed that we could find such an old stone village in this close proximity to urban Beijing.
Another unusual village is Chenjiatai in Fangshan District. It appears as any ordinary mountain village situated along one of the old coal routes. Yet here the house fronts are lined with stone grave markers. And on closer look there are also wood caskets and stone urns lying about as well. The village obviously has a unique business. Miss Li Xueling, 38, a former truck driver now helping the family coffin and urn business, was happy to talk shop. According to Li, although cremation is the law, there is a certain leeway in the mountains where many people still opt for traditional burials. Thus there is a market for coffins. But of course they also sell stone urns for ashes as well as stone memorial stele. The coffins, she explained, can be made from a variety of woods, the most expensive being cypress at 10,000 yuan. As part of the business they also carve inscriptions on the marble gravestones. A set epitaph is usually included in the 200-400 yuan price of the stone, but extra calligraphy costs 3 yuan for large letters and 1 yuan for small ones. (I must go back to compare the costs there ten years later.)
Today the villages of Beijing and their traditional culture face many challenges for survival. Urban expansion, modernization, water shortage and population depletion are taking their toll on village life. Unfortunately, many rural areas are gradually being declared as urban so that developers can expand more easily. Change is inevitable, but as long as their stone structures endure, the outer shell at least will maintain an impression of the past.